Breathtaking Buttler keeps England alive
IT HAS taken a while for Jos Buttler to step out of Eoin Morgan’s huge shadow, but there were signs here at the Gabba that he is finally making this England team his own.
There was flexibility from Buttler in choosing to bat first against New Zealand on a used pitch when so much of their Morgan-led whiteball success came through chasing.
There was also a gem of an innings from a captain who needed to show he could lead from the front, admittedly with the help of two bad, decisive dropped catches.
Most impressively, there was real imagination and thought in the way Buttler used his bowlers in a nailbiting but ultimately comfortable 20-run win that keeps England’s Twenty20 World Cup hopes alive.
‘It was a very satisfying game to come through as a captain,’ said Buttler, knowing victory against Sri Lanka in Sydney on Saturday will probably be enough to earn England a semi-final place. ‘To score runs for the team and then make a couple of decisions that came off straight away... it’s very nice when that happens.
‘My own captaincy journey is still pretty young and, as that evolves, I’ll get even more of a feel of exactly what I like.
‘for instance, it was only when I came off having batted that I thought Moeen (Ali) should bowl our first over. You can look at numbers until the cows come home but your feel on the day is a very important part of captaincy.’
This was an important performance from England under pressure and they have avoided, for now at least, an early journey home.
Buttler played some breathtaking shots in his 73 off 47 balls, including a spectacular ramp for six from outside off-stump off Lockie ferguson’s third ball timed at 92mph, but was dropped expensively by New Zealand on eight and 40.
That first miss could have become a controversial moment when New Zealand captain Kane Williamson seemed to claim a juggling, diving effort only to see TV replays show the ball had clearly bounced.
When Buttler had added 81 for the first wicket with Alex Hales, England seemed set for an even bigger score than their eventual 179 for six and there will be concern at some of their batting, even though Buttler was rightly flexible in mixing up the order.
Ben Stokes struggled for fluency and could make only eight from seven balls in the finisher role after being dropped down the order to six.
Stokes was later to need treatment on the left index finger he broke so badly last year after taking the important catch of finn Allen but was back on the field for the closing stages.
One all-rounder who is thriving is Sam Curran.
He hit the last over six that Stokes failed to do as England got up to an above par score and again demonstrated his importance with the ball at all stages of a Twenty20 innings.
In particular at the death because there were times when New Zealand, through big-hitting Glenn Phillips, looked as if they were going to consign England to World Cup history. Not least when Moeen dropped the easiest catch you’ll ever see fumbled at this level when Phillips was on just 15.
If Phillips had got New Zealand over the line — he eventually fell to Curran on 62 thanks to one of two boundary catches from substitute Chris Jordan — then it could have been said Moeen had dropped the World Cup.
Thankfully that was not the case, thanks to brilliant death bowling from Mark Wood, who conceded just three runs from the 16th over and had Jimmy Neesham caught by Curran and then Chris Woakes, who conceded five runs in an important 17th over.
Curran was given the task of defending 26 runs from the final over and conceded just five.
‘He’s fantastic,’ said Buttler. ‘He always wants the tough overs. He always wants the ball in his hand. You forget how young he is sometimes. We will see him go from strength to strength.’
England somehow managed to get their best fielder in Jordan on the boundary for two of the biggest moments of the match — he caught Phillips and Daryl Mitchell during the New Zealand late charge — but Buttler insisted it was because Liam Livingstone was still feeling the ankle injury that almost kept him out of this World Cup.
Unless Australia annihilate Afghanistan on friday — and England have a 50-run swing on net run-rate — Buttler knows a win over Chris Silverwood’s Sri Lanka will be enough to get them to the last four.
They would have settled for that after they lost to Ireland and then saw their clash against Australia washed out.